Chapter 188 - The Overbearing General’s Pretty Warlord (VII)
Shi Tingyun was six years old when he first arrived at the Imperial Household, more than three months older than the thirteenth prince, Yan Yuanheng, whom he served.
At the end of the school day, the doctor explains Yan Yuanheng’s problems, and Shi Tingyun stands by the window to collect Yan Yuanheng’s ink and brush.
Yan Yuanzhao, the eight-year-old sixth prince, leans out of the window to see what’s new, followed by the submissive little Qu Ying.
Yan Yuanzhao : “Hi, you’re the eldest son of the Shi family?”
Shi Tingyun is generous and unpretentious: “Yes.”
Yan Yuanzhao further accosted him, ” Shi Tingyun , which three words are they?”
Shi Tingyun smiled and replied, “My sixth prince, the clouds have stopped and it is raining at times.”
”Brother Yun.” Yan Yuanzhao, who already knew his name, said affectionately, “I have some delicious cakes here, from the West, which I am the only one in the palace, apart from my father, who has them. Would you like to come and eat?”
”Many thanks to the Sixth Prince for his kindness ……”
Shi Tingyun looked up at Yan Yuanheng, who was still asking questions, and whispered to another chaperone who had returned from his pen, and despite his whispered advice, said, “I’m coming.
He climbed out of the window so quickly and silently that he did not even attract Yan Yuanheng’s attention.
Yan Yuanheng had finished asking the doctor a question when he realised that only one of his two new companions was left, and the remaining one was looking at him in fear, clutching his bag of books.
Yan Yuanheng was not too upset when he heard him say that Shi Tingyun had been called away by the Sixth Imperial Brother.
Yan Yuanheng had already heard of Shi Tingyun’s name.
He was the only son of General Shi Jinghong and was highly regarded by his father, and even his father was fond of him, giving him food and gifts at the annual festival, showing how much he was valued.
Besides, it was that sixth royal brother who had called him away, so it was useless for him to be angry.
Yan Yuanheng sighed slightly and had just gone out when he saw Shi Tingyun running quickly with a handkerchief holding a few cakes, and when he saw the Thirteenth Prince, he grabbed his hand: “Thirteenth Prince, you have waited for a long time. Please come this way.”
Yan Yuanheng, who had always acted with dignity and discipline, was pulled into a stumble, and he joined him in a long and confusing detour through the corridors of the Guozhijian, leaving another young chaperone far behind.
Only when he reached a small pavilion with a lovely view did Shi Tingyun stop, kneel down on one knee and present Yan Yuanheng with the cakes he held so securely in his hand: “Please have the cakes, Thirteenth Prince.”
Yan Yuanheng stood firmly on his feet, slightly out of breath, “Is this the Sixth Imperial Brother’s?”
Shi Tingyun said frankly, “Yes, I was invited, and I brought some for the thirteenth prince’s lunch.
Yan Yuanheng stared at the snack and pursed his lips, “I’m not hungry.”
But the aroma of the pastry stimulated his already empty stomach and Yan Yuanheng’s belly gave a muffled gurgle.
His face went mostly red all of a sudden.
Shi Tingyun stood up and smilingly recommended, “During lunch, I saw that the Thirteenth Prince liked sweet things. I tried them one by one, and these three kinds of pastries were the sweetest. Is the Thirteenth Prince really not going to try them?”
Yan Yuanheng turned his face away, not wanting to appear too greedy: “What does the Sixth Imperial Brother want from you?”
”He didn’t say.” Shi Tingyun fiddled with the lace of his handkerchief, “Zuo is just offering me some favours, asking me to be his companion, to give him a boost.”
The children of the palace were the most precocious, not to mention Yan Yuanheng, who had been brought up to be discreet and influenced by the lessons of her mother.
He was startled and rushed to cover his mouth, “Keep your voice down! Don’t say that!”
Shi Tingyun then stopped talking and held up the handkerchief in his hand, gesturing for him to use it quickly.
Yan Yuanheng, however, put the pastries away and said solemnly, “Don’t abuse sweets before a meal, it will spoil your appetite.”
Shi Tingyun smiled, “I’ll leave that for after dinner.”
At that time, Yan Yuanheng was only a child, no matter how cautious he was.
He hesitated for a long time before asking Shi Tingyun that day before he parted ways, “…… will you go.”
It was a sentence with no end in sight, but Shi Tingyun understood it.
He smiled and said, ” Shi Tingyun will come tomorrow to study with the thirteenth prince, and the day after. He will come even for a year, and for ten years.”
Perhaps it was a prophecy that Shi Tingyun really did become Yan Yuanheng’s companion for ten years.
A whole decade.
Ten years and many things have changed.
Yan Yuanheng, who had been a cautious young man, gradually overpowered Yan Yuanzhao with his real talent and was much loved by the emperor, while Yan Yuanzhao also changed his diligence and wisdom from his earlier years, no longer demanding advancement, and became more and more foppy, causing the emperor a headache.
Shi Tingyun’s temperament has not changed much compared to these two.
From the moment we first met, he was a man of leisure, as if nothing could be held against him.
As he drunkenly said at the age of fifteen: “I am the only one who is the new generation in Wangcheng.
Shi Tingyun knew every corner of Wangcheng very well. The first time he took Yan Yuanheng out of the palace, he went to the gambling house and won ten taels of silver, which he used to take him all over Wangcheng, listening to books at the tea stalls, eating melon seeds for three wens a plate, watching shadow puppets in the crowd, watching the Westerners play with snakes, and even going up to the Westerners and borrowing their snakes in Western dialect, playing with them for a while and then using them to scare Yan Yuanheng.
Yan Yuanheng was not afraid of snakes and said indifferently, “Nonsense, be careful of being bitten.”
Shi Tingyun jokes that he lived as an old schoolboy at the age of twelve or thirteen, and he is not offended.
Yan Yuanheng was never angry with Shi Tingyun.
He loved watching him do things, whether it was practising his gun, practising his writing, copying, washing his ink stone or drinking wine, he did it differently from the next person.
Yan Yuanheng does not quite understand what kind of feelings this is.
He thought that after being with anyone for so long, one would probably have such unusual feelings.
However, since Chu Ziling entered the Toki House, things have not been the same.
Shi Tingyun, who had been so preoccupied with Yan Yuanheng’s happiness and sorrows, began to be accompanied by a servant who was a constant source of affection for Shi Tingyun.
Chu Ziling was born with smiling eyes and was so handsome that Shi Tingyun said he was chosen from among many other boys because he had a pleasant smile.
Yan Yuanheng once saw Shi Tingyun teach him the Shi family spear, and Chu Ziling only had to see it twice before he was able to perform the whole thing.
Shi Tingyun loved his talent, and when he sat down to tea with Yan Yuanheng, he still boasted about Chu Ziling and himself: “I have really found a treasure.”
Yan Yuanzhao snorted coldly, “A slightly smarter boy is worthy of being brought to the stage and told over and over again?”
Shi Tingyun speaks for Chu Ziling: “He is not a boy, he is a diamond in the rough. You will have to wait and see.”
Yan Yuanheng, who was standing by, was silent.
My diamond in the rough, he thought, has also raised a diamond in his rough.
He lowered his long eyelashes slightly and looked at the tea floating in his cup, trying to ignore the vague discomfort in his mind.
And after a certain polo match, he could no longer ignore it.
When a drunken gentleman stabbed his horse with a spur during the competition, the horse was frightened and went into a frenzy. He rode around the field and came to Shi Tingyun, who was guarding the drunken gentleman.
Chu Ziling reined in slightly and the horse, with a high hoof and a long neigh, stopped a step in front of Shi Tingyun.
The hot breath from the horse’s nose lifted Shi Tingyun’s hair.
He looked up at Chu Ziling on his horse.
Chu Ziling then leaned down and handed him the reins of his horse.
And Yan Yuanheng, who had hurriedly spurred his horse from the other end of the stable to protect Shi Tingyun, clearly heard Chu Ziling smile to Shi Tingyun as he handed back the reins, “The Duke is under, Ziling is over. Is this good.”
Yan Yuanheng froze at the sight of Shi Tingyun, who was always dashing, and then pursed his lips in amusement, as if embarrassed.
Yan Yuanheng has never seen such a Shi Tingyun.
His heart was so sour that he went down and drank a few cups of hot tea, but still had trouble calming down.
Yan Yuanheng stroked the belly of his teacup and asked himself in a whisper what was going on.
Later, when the southern frontier rebelled and the war was in full swing, Shi Tingyun, aged sixteen, went to war with a Chu Ziling by his side.
The battle lasted two years, culminating in a showdown on the Great Green Mountain, not far from the Jinji Tomb.
The emperor was concerned about Shi Jinghong’s safety, so Yan Yuanheng, who was also concerned about Shi Tingyun’s safety, asked to go to the frontier.
By the time he arrived with his troops, the duel was over, the southern border surrendered and the battle was over.
Yan Yuanheng met with the late general, pronounced the imperial decree and discussed the business before suppressing his inner tension and asking Shi Tingyun where he was.
He found Shi Tingyun on the edge of the battlefield at Daqing Mountain.
In the wild wind, Shi Tingyun sits on the slope, his silver helmet fallen and his long hair dishevelled, quietly thinking.
His eyes rested on the back of Chu Ziling, who was cleaning up the battlefield not far away and standing long.
Yan Yuanheng called out to him.
Shi Tingyun now turned his head, dragging his wounded leg down to his knees in greeting, and Yan Yuanheng hurried to help him, hearing his long-lost joking accent again: “Thank you, Your Majesty, for bestowing the Thirteenth Prince on the last general.”
That night, in his tent, Yan Yuanheng had a strange and highly inappropriate dream.
When the dream passed, he was so disturbed and surprised at his own mischief that he had to quietly bury his blouse by the army tent while it was still light.
When the battle was over, General Shi asked Shi Tingyun to return to Wangcheng to recover from his wounds. However, everyone could have guessed what General Shi was thinking.
– Shi Tingyun It’s time to get married.
However, Shi Tingyun had been hanging out with Yan Yuanzhao for more than a year, and there were rumours that Shi Tingyun liked Long Yang, either with the sixth prince, Yan Yuanzhao, or with the thirteenth prince, Yan Yuanheng.
For some reason, Yan Yuanzhao always jokes with Yan Yuanheng about these absurdities.
Yan Yuanheng was disturbed and said politely, “Sixth brother, don’t spread such nonsense from the countryside, if Su Chang were to find out, it would be disgraceful.
Yan Yuanzhao covered his mouth with his golden silk fan: “Thirteenth Brother, it was just a joke. But tell me, if I were to choose between you and me, who would I choose?”
Yan Yuanheng forced himself to resist the urge, “Please be careful what you say, Sixth Imperial Brother.”
That night, Yan Yuanheng went to bed early as was his custom, but in his heart he couldn’t help thinking that if Su Chang were to choose, he would definitely choose the sixth royal brother, as they had known each other since childhood and had a lot to talk about, and the sixth royal brother was a lively person ……
For this reason, he was a full hour late in falling asleep.
The next day, Yan Yuanheng, dizzy, thought to himself that he was really being a nuisance.
The Shi Tingyun family had a family business to inherit, and Shi Tingyun was bound to be with a woman.
However, Shi Tingyun stayed in Wangcheng for a year and a half, the emperor asked many times, and the second uncle of the Shi family often asked a matchmaker to come to his door, breaking the threshold of the general’s house, but Shi Tingyun declined all of them, having no intention of doing so.
Shortly after Yan Yuanheng heard of his father’s intention to marry Shi Tingyun, bad news arrived outside Zhennan Pass.
General Shi Jinghong died a violent death, caused by hemlock.
The adjutant general found hemlock poison in the general’s buns that day. The cook cried out injustice, but was killed by the angry generals who thought he was a traitor from the southern border.
The General was always careful to test the poison with a silver needle whenever he ate, so no one knew how the hemlock poison was mistakenly consumed by the General.
When the sad news came, the Emperor was so shocked and anxious that he vomited blood when he thought of the love he had for Shi Jinghong when he was a student.
Yan Yuanheng’s thoughts were with her, and after attending to her illness as usual, she hesitated and left the palace to go to the general’s residence.
He was greeted by Li Yeshu, who, with red eyes, said that his son was drunk and that A Ling was keeping him company.
Shi Tingyun gave himself a night to get drunk.
Yan Yuanheng asked Ah Shu not to pass on the message and walked slowly and alone outside Shi Tingyun’s house.
He heard Shi Tingyun talking, after all, about Yan Yuanzhao.
Shi Tingyun said, “…… I know what is in Yuan Zhao’s heart. When he was a child, he thought he had a fighting chance for the throne, so he wanted to make friends with me. He was so happy that he stopped fighting and befriended me in the hope that the new king would be crowned and he would have a peaceful life. I know he is always barking at you, but he is not a bad person ……”
Yan Yuanheng is amazed.
He was talking a little too much with this boy.
He wanted to go in and stop it, but unconsciously stood still and tried to wait for him to say himself.
However, after a long time of hard work, he only waited for a simple comment: ” Yuan Heng, he …… has a promising future ……”
”For the emperor, for my father, for both of them, I want ……” The man inside struggled to get up but went limp back to the bed, “The rivers and mountains of the Yan family, Shi Tingyun to guard ……”
From inside came Chu Ziling’s voice: “My lord, don’t make a fuss, go to bed early.”
”…… A Ling.” After a long pause, Yan Yuanheng heard Shi Tingyun say in a muffled voice with a sobbing voice, “A Ling, I have no father.”
Yan Yuanheng’s heart cut into his chest and he was just about to push the door open when he heard a sucking sound like a kiss from inside.
Immediately afterwards he heard Chu Ziling whisper, “Don’t be sad, my lord. A Ling will go with you to the southern frontier, to live and die with you, to live and die with you.”
Yan Yuanheng’s face turned pale and he almost fled the general’s residence, only to accompany his ailing father from afar on the day Shi Tingyun led his troops out of Wangcheng, watching Shi Tingyun leave.
Since then, Yan Yuanheng has only heard about Shi Tingyun from war reports.
Until his death, Yan Yuanheng regretted that he had not been able to speak to him properly when he left the city.
……
This time, the process of infusing the world line is extraordinarily long and slow, and Chi Xiaochi can even feel every bit of the pain and love of the original Shi Tingyun clearly.
He considered Yan Yuanzhao Yan Yuanheng to be his best friend, but he only loved Chu Ziling.
Chu Ziling is a diamond in the rough that he has polished.
At first, he wanted to help him out of slavery, but then the diamond in the rough was just too eye-catching and unknowingly stole all his attention.
However, male style was seen by the world as a not-so-elegant hobby, and the Toki family motto was that concubinage was never allowed.
Shi Tingyun did not want to involve other girls, and he did not want to tell Chu Ziling what was on his mind, which would have disturbed him, so he broke off the idea himself and wished to spend his life in the kingdom and never marry.
And the death of his father instantly catapulted him to a high position he had never previously thought possible.
He arrived at Zhennan Pass and hastily took over the military affairs of the southern border.
After his father’s death, the Southlanders moved immediately and it was entirely possible to guess which forces were behind the poisoning and assassination.
The Northern Government’s military discipline is very strict, and the change of command at the first time will not lead to chaos, but it is inevitable that there will be worries.
The young general has been in battle, a war vanguard, and has some prestige in the army, but has never held a commanding position.
Is Shi Tingyun really capable of leading the entire Northern Army?
Shi Tingyun never shows a hint of vulnerability in front of others, and occasionally, when he drinks with his soldiers, he has the heart to tell them something funny about the old days in Wangcheng, laughing with them.
That is, until one time, after a deadly battle between the Zophian mountains, when his lieutenant, Chu Ziling, disappeared in battle.
For the first time, Shi Tingyun, who was always as steady as a mountain, broke out of his tent on a night when the rain was pouring down and rode up the mountain, turning over the bodies one by one to try to find Chu Ziling.
His playmate since the age of twelve, his diamond in the rough, the only person he could pour his heart out to in the army, his ……
As he pulled up a bloodied corpse, he suddenly heard a startled voice from behind him, “…… the gentry?”
Chu Ziling was struck in the back with a sabre during the melee, fainted and lay for a long time among the dead before being awakened by heavy rain.
Shi Tingyun was overwhelmed by a wave of ecstasy at the prospect of losing and regaining her life.
He heard him and, without a word, stumbled forward, grabbed Chu Ziling by his sludge-stained hair and kissed him straight on.
That night, as the rain continued to fall, Shi Tingyun, who had fallen in the mud, choked on the water as she kissed him and coughed violently.
He wanted to indulge himself for a while.
Tonight, and tonight only, is good.
He called him, ” A Ling .”
Chu Ziling patted him on the back, “My son, I have a name, call me Chu Ziling.”
Shi Tingyun gritted his teeth and said in a muffled voice, ” Chu Ziling , you have a wound on your back, the Duke allows you to …… come up.”
The man in front of him froze for a moment, then he lowered his head and kissed the small scar at the corner of his eye, bending his eyes, “My lord …… General, I hope you will forgive me for having offended so much.”
That night Shi Tingyun returned to camp with Chu Ziling and a few wounded soldiers who had been left behind.
The two share a ride, and no one can tell what’s going on.
Only when he dismounted did Chu Ziling give Shi Tingyun a silent hand.
Shi Tingyun stared at him in anger and amusement, gritting his teeth and fighting the discomfort as he stepped into the tent, but a big stone fell from his heart.
He had thought that Chu Ziling had no interest in him, so he was reluctant to make it clear, but he thought that he shared his feelings.
For Shi Tingyun, who is in a state of gloom and is struggling to hold on, this is enough consolation.
The Southerners seemed to be able to anticipate every move of the Northerners, and their tactics were poisonous and ruthless, but Shi Tingyun himself was also resourceful and flexible, and moved in response to the times.
The soldiers say that a tiger’s father does not have a son, and General Shih is a true example of his father’s style.
The loss of his father was gradually overshadowed by the tilt towards victory.
Little by little, the first opportunity that the Southlanders had so painstakingly sought to gain was being lost.
One day Shi Tingyun was reading a letter in his tent.
What a coincidence that two of his best brothers, one after the other, wrote on the same day.
Yan Yuanzhao asked him how he was doing, whether he was dead or not, and if he was dead, there was no need to return.
Shi Tingyun wrote the word “no” all over the top of a sheet of paper, and a reply was completed.
Yan Yuanheng wrote to ask if he was well, turning a letter into an elegant and archaic ekphrastic Wen.
Shi Tingyun wrote the word ‘good’ in the top frame again and handed it to his lieutenant to be sent out, when he suddenly heard a report from outside that the battle was over and, as expected, the northern army had won.
Shi Tingyun threw his pen and scolded Hu Lai: “How many times have I told him that he is not to be forced by a poor man!”
He stood up, “Vice General Sun, order a team of your own soldiers to go with me to meet them, just in case.”
Vice-Admiral Sun, who had followed his predecessor Shi Jinghong since he was a young man, was a generous man and could not help the young general’s spontaneity.
…… After all, the young general is a military general and has long been accustomed to conquering in person, always refusing to sit comfortably in his tent.
Shi Tingyun, who was on his way, came across the trap where he had won a great victory.
The traps are a series of traps, and when you first enter them, the camouflage above the traps is strong, but the further you go, the weaker the camouflage becomes, and by the time the lead troops realise it, the traps have collapsed beneath their feet, and the traps they have walked over are loosened by a succession of horses’ hooves, leaving a large area trapped.
Although Shi Tingyun called a halt to the rear ranks as soon as he sensed something was wrong, the shouts and arrows that fell in all directions took the lives of most of the soldiers in an instant.
Shi Tingyun was not covered by the rain of arrows, but only two iron-feathered arrowheads carved with the heads of southern eagles pierced his shoulders with unerring accuracy, dismounting him with the clear intention of capturing him alive.
An ambush?
Is it premeditated?
But how could the Southlanders have known that Chu Ziling would come after them with his troops?
How is Chu Ziling doing?
Shi Tingyun, without thinking, struggled to get up, gritted his teeth, pulled out the feathered arrowhead and went to grab the silver spear on the side of the horse, when he suddenly felt a blackout.
…… The arrows are hardened with poison!
In his daze, Shi Tingyun held his gun to the ground to steady himself, but in the end, the drug took hold and he slid to his knees.
As the sky spun around, there were faint shadows of people shifting in front of him.
He braced himself to look up, only to see someone who made you think you were in a nightmare.
Chu Ziling stood in the midst of a small army in southern frontier attire, still wearing the armour of a deputy general of the northern army, and bent down in salute with a smile on his brow: “My lord, Chu Ziling has offended much, I hope you will forgive me.”
In the 19th year of Jianping, an expedited war report arrived at Wangcheng.
Shi Tingyun, a young general of the Northern Army, is betrayed by his lieutenant Chu Ziling and captured at the southern border.
At that time, even the people of Southland thought that Chu Ziling was nothing more than a lucrative barking dog.
Chu Ziling was led to the King of the Southern Border to receive praise for his great service, but he revealed to himself that he had killed General Shi Jinghong as well.
It was he who put hemlock on Shi Tingyun’s family letter and asked his trusted soldiers from the main camp, whom he had trained during the war, to deliver the letter to Shi Jinghong during his meal.
He knew that General Shi Jinghong had a habit of turning the pages with his saliva while reading, and that when he opened the letter, he had the hemlock poison on his hands, so that he could conceal it by mixing it with the food he poured out afterwards.
The King of Southland was overjoyed and was about to announce a great reward for him when Chu Ziling revealed a token in public and said in a shocking manner that he had done all this for the sake of Southland.
…… He is the son of the King of the Southern Border, a true royal prince.
His mother was the second youngest daughter of a family of the Imperial family in Zhennan Pass.
A dozen years ago, during the war, the Southlanders fought through the South China Pass, and Miss Chu was taken away and raped, and because of her beauty, she was offered up in layers for the “exclusive use” of the Southland King.
Subsequently, the northern army killed back and made a surprise attack on the southern king’s camp, which he abandoned and fled, leaving behind two women who were already in their 60s and pregnant.
She was rescued by the Northern Army and received silver, but she was too ashamed to return home and it was too late to have an abortion.
The woodcutter was gentle and not a bad person, and Miss Chu had nowhere else to go, and they were both miserable people, so they got together and made a companion.
Chu Ziling looks like her mother, especially with her smiling eyes, which are not characteristic of the southern border.
He took Chu as his surname, was brought up by Miss Chu, and was so intelligent that he was sent to a private school in a small town down the hill at the age of five.
When he was eight years old, a woodcutter took Chu Ziling to the market and a fortune teller divined his fate.
The woodcutter didn’t care, and told this story as a joke to Miss Chu, who thought but seven days, in a rainy night, the woodcutter fetched a bundle of firewood, when hurrying home, rolled down the hill, fell and broke both legs, was found three days later, his limbs have been festering, with a stretcher back home, struggling to survive for several days, and finally died.
Miss Chu was devastated. She fell ill.
Before she became too ill and passed away, she finally poured out the pain she had felt for years to her son, who knew nothing about it.
He was the son of a barbarian, a man she did not want, and who had killed the man she had so easily found.
Before she died, Miss Chu grabbed his hand and called out in a loud voice of hate, not knowing whether she hated life or people.
And Chu Ziling buried his mother and got his hands on the jade pendant that the King of the Southern Border had left in the camp in his haste to escape.
My mother hid the jade pendant so that she could pawn it in case she ran out of money on her way back home.
More than ten years later, with this jade pendant in his hand, he stood before the Southland court and calmly invented the story of his mother’s close relationship with the King of Southland, who, after he left, carefully kept this object and used it to look at it every day in remembrance.
He, on the other hand, had infiltrated the general’s residence for several years, bending over backwards to please him, but only with a purely filial heart, wanting to serve the southern border and one day return to it to do justice to his mother.
The father and son of the Toki family were his long-awaited offer.
Many courtiers in the court spoke up to congratulate the King of the Southern Border, who was overjoyed and acknowledged him with great pleasure.
He could not remember the name of the Chinese woman long ago, but the jade pendant was his, and he was happy to believe that there was a foolish woman who willingly gave birth to his son, and who had been in love with him for many years until her death.
What’s more, Shi Jinghong and Shi Tingyun, two of the Southern King’s greatest enemies, were dead and captured, both of which were real events that could not be faked.
These were all mentioned in a laughing conversation he had with Shi Tingyun after his imprisonment.
Chu Ziling turned in front of Shi Tingyun and showed him a magnificent robe: “Look, my lord, is this a beautiful outfit?”
He said, “If I had only taken the jade pendant when I was a young boy to join them, I fear I would have been driven out with a messy stick.”
He said, “How can I, an illegitimate son with no merit and no reward, be able to wear such clothes and be so highly regarded? All that Ziling has gained is due to the great kindness of the Duke, and Chu Ziling will never dare to forget it.”
Shi Tingyun, heavily shackled and with his mouth gagged with mace, only smiled coldly at the words.
He is long past the point of despair.
When he first woke up, Shi Tingyun almost went mad at the sight of his surroundings.
He did not want to believe what he had seen before he fell into a coma until Chu Ziling himself came to him and revealed the fire-painted seal, which had been hidden by the soldiers afterwards and was tainted with hemlock.
The words Shi Tingyun are branded in fire paint.
Su Chang, his father’s wish for him, may his heart be like snow and always ready.
It was because it was his beloved Su Chang who sent the letter that my father opened it unguardedly and read it during dinner.
At the sight of this object, Shi Tingyun gradually calmed down.
He looked at Chu Ziling and his voice was hoarse: “…… Why then. I, Tokiya, what have I done to you.”
”The Toki family has treated me extremely well.” Chu Ziling’s smiling eyes curved as he said, “But you treat me well, but it is just a charity from the top to the slave. If I can be a prince, I can clearly beat Yan Yuanzhao, so why do you want me to serve tea and be a lieutenant for the rest of my life? I also want my mother to know that she doesn’t deserve to hate me, that I can make her look good behind me and become a queen, a woodcutter can’t, he can’t.”
Shi Tingyun thought of the promise of the past, of the night when it poured like rain.
Chu Ziling had been his master and servant for many years and could easily guess what he was thinking by the look on his face.
He smiled and bent down, gazing into his eyes: “It is inevitably lonely in the barracks, and it is my duty to serve the General for a night. Do you regret it? Think you should have been on top that night?”
Shi Tingyun suddenly bursts out in a harsh, muffled laugh that refuses to stop until he chokes violently.
Seeing Shi Tingyun’s posture, Chu Ziling froze, and his tone took on a tentative tone: “…… Sir, you don’t really have a crush on me, do you?”
Shi Tingyun did not give him an answer.
Chu Ziling had already humiliated him enough, and there was really no need for him to add to that humiliation.
Chu Ziling did not kill him, but locked him in his tent and sealed his mouth so that he would not bite his tongue.
He kept Shi Tingyun, so that he might bear witness to his glory.
Shi Tingyun also learns more about Chu Ziling from his time in captivity.
After nearly ten years of being a slave, Chu Ziling was disgusted by the word “slave”, but his brothers, who had grown up next to the King of South China, often called him “a dog raised by the Chinese”, “a filthy slave” and “a bastard”.
After becoming a prince, Chu Ziling no longer had to hide himself, especially in front of Shi Tingyun.
He laughed as he pinched Shi Tingyun’s face and made him call himself a slave, while at the same time he pushed against him and abused him.
Shi Tingyun was tormented by him several times but never let up, which often provoked Chu Ziling to become more and more furious and then to hit him several times harder until Shi Tingyun fainted from exhaustion.
In the end, Shi Tingyun didn’t even want to die.
At this point, to die is to admit defeat.
Soon after, Chu Ziling began his long-planned counter-attack.
Chu Ziling followed Shi Tingyun into battle as his second-in-command, learning the secrets of the northern army and the terrain of the pass.
He had prepared so carefully for such a long time in order to lead the Southern Border Army to counter-attack the Central Plains.
As the marshal was in short supply at the frontier and in a hurry to establish his authority in the army, Chu Ziling took advantage of the lack of talent at the frontier and used the art of war, which Shi Tingyun had given him, to take the Zhennan Pass and advance towards the interior of the pass.
Chu Ziling brought Shi Tingyun with him whenever he passed through the city, seemingly to torment him.
He made it.
Shi Tingyun was tortured and tortured day in and day out, and Chu Ziling would come to his tent after the war and humiliate him.
He leaned over Shi Tingyun and said, “My lord, you have returned to your homeland. How does it feel to be fucked on the scorched earth of your homeland?”
Shi Tingyun did not say a word until he passed out through clenched teeth.
In the daze, he felt a hand gently caress his face, and the voice that rang in his ears was long-lost and gentle.
”…… Gongzi, Gongzi, why can’t you give in to a little softness. Concede a soft word and I will treat you well.”
A few months later, the city of Dui was broken.
Shi Tingyun, who had been sleeping in his tent during the day, was inexplicably carried out of the tent by two strong southern frontiersmen.
Outside the tent is the smiling face of Chu Ziling.
He said, “What a surprise, the one guarding the drainage city is an old acquaintance of the Duke and me. Your Excellency, come and meet him.”
When Yan Yuanzhao was pushed in front of Shi Tingyun, they looked at each other for a long time, speechless.
After several years, no one could have imagined that they would look like this when they saw their old friend again.
It was the first time Shi Tingyun had ever seen Yan Yuanzhao in battle armour, which was a bit comical and did not look as good as the purple satin silk garments he loved to wear.
Chu Ziling coughs softly, interrupting the two of them from looking at each other.
He came up to Shi Tingyun, crouched down, pointed at Yan Yuanzhao and said, “Want him to live?”
Shi Tingyun’s face changed.
Chu Ziling showed a mischievous grin, “Say to him, ‘My humble servant, I see you, Your Majesty,’ or ‘My humble servant, I dare not defile Your Majesty’s body of ten thousand pieces of gold,’ and I will consider it.”
Yan Yuanzhao was shaken to his core.
His ears, which were meant to be used for the pleasure of the palace and the horns, now caught Chu Ziling’s teasing and insults to his former friend.
”Go ahead.” Chu Ziling said to Shi Tingyun with a smile on his face, “If you say it, I will spare his life.”
Shi Tingyun hesitated for the first time.
For the past six months, he had been humiliated, and no matter how much pain he felt inside, he had never once shown weakness.
However, if Yan Yuanzhao ……
While he was hesitating, Yan Yuanzhao’s side suddenly rose up, defying the shackles and struggling furiously.
He growled at the top of his lungs, “Don’t you dare kneel at me, Toki!”
”Shi Tingyun, why do you think the Sixth Master befriended you! It’s because your last name is Shi! Your surname is Shi!”
”…… Do you think I, Yan Yuanzhao, am still your best friend? No! Not from the beginning!”
Shi Tingyun stares at him blankly.
What Yan Yuanzhao says is a fact that Shi Tingyun has known since he was a child.
Shi Tingyun understood his use, but he never imagined that Yan Yuanzhao would feel guilty for the calculating way in which they had met, or even that he would think that Shi Tingyun would not humiliate himself for his sake if he would only speak of such a small selfishness.
Yan Yuanzhao’s words were the words of a man determined to die: “If you dare kneel to me, I will bite my tongue immediately!”
Chu Ziling waved his hand in disinterest, and seven or eight sturdy Southland soldiers swarmed around him, surrounding Yan Yuanzhao with punches and kicks, and the sound of sore muscles and bones dislocating was incessant.
Shi Tingyun was dumbfounded for a moment, but when he came to his senses, he shouted, “Stop! You-”
Chu Ziling plays with the jade pendant on his waist and stands to one side as if waiting for something.
Shi Tingyun fell to his knees with a plop and knocked heavily to the ground twice, spilling blood straight out, ” Chu Ziling , please, spare him …… give him a break, I beg you, I beg you!”
Chu Ziling squatted down and wondered, “My lord, I told you to beg, why didn’t you beg?”
Shi Tingyun vaguely heard the sound of a knife entering his body and his jaws cracked: “Yuanzhao …… you spare him, I’ll do whatever you want ……”
Chu Ziling had had enough of him bowing his head and begging for mercy, and his heart raced before he asked, “He used to loathe me so much and despise me. Now that he has fallen into my hands, why should I spare him?”
Shi Tingyun tried to jump on Yan Yuanzhao, but the shackles prevented him from moving at all.
He watched and listened as Yan Yuanzhao’s side went silent.
He watched as the group of southern frontiersmen scattered and watched Yan Yuanzhao kneel on a flaming plaque, dead.
He heard someone say that the prince’s eyes were also too wide open before he died and he looked scared.
Others say that it is said that this kind of person who died in vain is so fierce that he will use his eyes to remember the appearance of the person who killed him, and that after his death he will have to go to the King of Hell to sue, and will have to have his eyes gouged out in order to relieve the fury.
That night, Chu Ziling put Yan Yuanzhao’s body in the same tent as Shi Tingyun.
After one night, Shi Tingyun was close to insanity.
Six months later, Wangcheng was broken down and the imperial family fled north, leaving behind the 13th prince, Yan Yuanheng, who was captured alive as the city broke down.
Chu Ziling brought Yan Yuanheng to Shi Tingyun after he had imprisoned them in a heavenly prison.
At first sight, Yan Yuanheng could not believe that Shi Tingyun was still alive, and his face, which had been solemn since he was captured, finally wavered.
He went up to Shi Tingyun and gently patted him on the shoulder as if he was afraid of waking a beautiful dream.
However, Shi Tingyun, as if bitten by a poisonous snake, fell to the ground and kowtowed more than once: “My humble slave does not dare to defile the body of the emperor. …… I am too lowly to defile your son’s body.”
…… Yuan Heng , I don’t care anymore.
You have to live.
Don’t be like Yuan Zhaoge, don’t be like Yuan Zhaoge.
Yan Yuanheng was dumbfounded when he met Shi Tingyun’s trembling eyes, and his heart twisted in pain.
Chu Ziling was satisfied and left Yan Yuanheng and Shi Tingyun in prison, and went to the palace where he used to walk with his head down, to choose a palace for his son.
No one could have imagined that Yan Yuanheng would break out of prison that night.
He would not be able to cross over to the outside in any case. The Heavenly Prison was so heavily guarded that even if he took one step out, he would be pierced by a thousand crossbows.
In the end, Chu Ziling did not care much about Yan Yuanheng’s death, and not only did he not restrain him, he also provided him with bedding and tea sets, clearly expecting him to hang himself with the sheets or slit his wrists with the tealight.
As Chu Ziling had thought, Yan Yuanheng crushed a tealight, chose the sharpest piece and, using a lockpicking trick Shi Tingyun had developed as a child, silently broke open the cage he was in, unlocked Shi Tingyun’s cage before the guards noticed anything unusual, and slowly and methodically re-snapped the chains, locking himself in place with Shi Tingyun was locked in one place.
Shi Tingyun was feverish and dazed when he saw the familiar young man, with his hair at his temples and blood at the corners of his mouth, approaching him.
He quirked his lips and muttered the words he had said a million times in his nightmares.
A warm hand rested on the back of his neck and squeezed it twice as if to reassure him not to be afraid, not to be afraid.
In a whirlwind, a bit of sharpness came up against his throat, a crisp, clean cut.
The young man who was the only one in the springtime in Wangcheng, covered in blood, lay in his arms, silent.
Yan Yuanheng held his shoulders, listening to the noisy footsteps outside, put the broken porcelain piece against his neck and whispered in his ear, “Shi Tingyun, Yan Yuanheng has been thinking of you for a long time. But you don’t know.”
With that, Yan Yuanheng took Shi Tingyun’s body in his arms and slowly slit his own throat, amidst the growing noise of footsteps.
…… lookout for springtime, never to be repeated.
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